Punjab to set up Indo-Israel villages of excellence for vegetables

For instance, four polyhouses are being set up in Alawalpur village in Jalandhar district. Similarly, in some other villages, more than one polyhouse and pack houses will also be established.

The main purpose is to bring the maximum agricultural area under protected vegetable cultivation in the form of polyhouse, and tunnel farming which will pave the way for the diversification of crops and also help farmers to earn good profit in a short period with less input cost.

Indo-Israel CoE for Vegetables was set up in Kartarpur, Jalandhar, in December 2013 where vegetables are grown in polyhouses and saplings are readied to be supplied to the farmers across the state at a nominal price at their doorstep.

To date, the centre has supplied 1.80 crores of saplings to the farmers. Nearly 9,000 farmers benefited from it as they received the technical know-how about growing vegetables under protected farming and took more benefit from the smaller units of land. In all these years, 66,000 visitors including farmers, experts, students of the schools, colleges, universities, and experts from Israel visited the village.

“Presently, the centre cultivated the vegetables by using new technology and also produced saplings by using the new technique and now all will be transferred at the village level by creating the village of excellence,” said Shailender Kaur, director of the Punjab horticulture department. The officer added that the centre will provide a suitable platform for a rapid transfer of technology to the farmers at the village level now.

“This includes a demonstration of know-how and new techniques such as drip irrigation or fertigation, new crop varieties etc.,” she said.

The major activities of CoE, include standardisation and demonstration of vegetables under different protected structures, hi-tech nurseries, doorstep delivery of vegetable seedlings, post-harvest management facilities, human resource development, model of vegetable sale outlets etc. Scientists and experts from state universities and institutions, students and farmers are visiting regularly.

“Hi-tech vegetable nursery is prepared in a hi-tech polyhouse in an area of 2,000 square metres in which vegetable nursery seedlings are being produced in soilless media in plug trays as per the demands of the farmers. Farmers can also provide seeds at the centre and get the seedlings ready for planting in the field for nominal charges. Approximately, 180 lakh seedlings have been supplied to the farmers, which has benefited nearly 9,000 farmers,” said Dr Daljit Singh Gill, project officer CoE, Kartarpur.

New technologies adopted at the centre have been shown to drastically multiply production and to significantly raise product quality which increases the productivity of vegetables and the profit of the farmers. Also, it generates employment and increases the contribution to the state’s GDP, he said.

“The area under horticulture crops has gone up from 2.45 lakh hectares in 2011-12 to 4.39 lakh hectares in 2021-22, which is an increase of 79 per cent in a decade,” said director Kaur, while adding that out of a total of 4.2 million hectares cultivable area, the horticulture area is 4.39 lakh hectares, which is 9.56% of the total cultivable area of the state.

Out of a total of 4.39 lakh hectares, vegetables, spices, aromatic and flower crops are grown in 3.43 lakh hectares and fruits in 96,000 hectares (kinnow fruit in 55,470 hectares; guava in 9,580 hectares; mango in 7,116 ha; pear in 3,440 ha, and litchi in 3,156 hectares).

Punjab which witnessed around 38.83 lakh tonnes of horticulture produce a decade ago has now seen a whopping 100 per cent increase of 86.20 lakh tonnes.

Out of the total production in 2021-22, the maximum share comes from vegetables (64.39 lakh tonnes), followed by fruits (21.42 lakh tones), flowers (13,225 tonnes), spices and aromatic crops (13,110 tonnes), and mushrooms (12,000 tonnes).

Among the vegetables, 28.70 lakh tonnes of potatoes, 4.60 lakh tonnes, of peas, 6.57 lakh tonnes of tubers, 4.18 lakh tonnes of cauliflower and 2.86 lakh tonnes of vine crops were cultivated in the state.

Also, Punjab is a leading producer of honey in the country with 13.7 per cent. Also, the per hectare productivity of horticulture crops is 19.62 tonnes and it contributes 14.58 per cent share (GDP).

Meanwhile, to inspire farmers to sell their produce directly to the consumers, a model of a vegetable sale outlet for fresh vegetables and seedlings for kitchen gardening has been set up near the Kartarpur CoE gate. Farmers are being provided regular training in protected cultivation. To date, 38 training programmes and seminars on protected cultivation have been organised for the farmers.